Incidents Around the House Book Club Questions: 20 Discussion Questions for Josh Malerman's Novel

The Short Version

Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman’s 2024 haunted house novel from Del Rey, suits a book club because the horror is really about a family, and because the ending divides readers. It is narrated by a little girl named Bela, whose imaginary friend, Other Mommy, keeps asking if she can go into her heart. Malerman is also the author of Bird Box.

Below are twenty questions: ten that avoid the ending and ten that spoil it. We rate the book three and a half out of five: creepy, sad and original, with a bold ending, but a repetitive middle. The chapters are tiny, so it reads quickly, and the book has also been adapted as the film Other Mommy.

Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group

This is an adult horror novel with a child narrator. Expect frequent strong language, heavy drinking and some drug use by the parents, references to infidelity, violent domestic conflict, a death and a child in danger throughout. If a frightened child is a hard line for anyone in your club, say so before you pick it.

Spoiler-Free Questions

1. The book is first person and present tense, inside the head of a child, with narration against the left margin and dialogue without quotation marks. How did that choice affect your reading?
2. Bela doesn’t understand everything she sees, so the reader understands it for her. Where did that gap work best?
3. Bela calls her parents Mommy and Daddo, and wants a stuffed vulture because vultures only eat what’s already dead. What did you love about her logic?
4. Other Mommy lives in the bedroom closet and keeps asking, Can I go into your heart? Why is asking permission scarier than simply grabbing?
5. Bela’s descriptions of Other Mommy come in pieces: her eyes on the sides of her head, a mouth that stretches to the floor, a smell like a dead mouse covered in bugs. Which detail stuck with you?
6. The best scares are small and domestic, like a creak in the ceiling or a closet door that isn’t quite closed. Did the ordinary house make it scarier?
7. Daddo gives long, warm speeches about kindness and fear while Bela pretends to be asleep. Do those speeches feel real, or too long?
8. Bela overhears her parents drinking, arguing and keeping secrets. Is this a book about a monster or a marriage?
9. Other Mommy pitches reincarnation, which Bela mishears as carnation. Why did Malerman make the sales pitch sound like a child’s game?
10. Our review says the middle repeats itself: someone sees something, everyone panics, the family moves, the adults talk. Did the middle drag for you?

Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)

11. On the beach at Sleeping Bear Dunes, Bela learns that Daddo is not her biological father: her mother had an affair with Russ, and Douglas Cain walked away. Why does this secret hit Bela so hard?
12. Lois Anthony thinks the creature is drawn to Bela’s innocence, so the family tries to take it away. Why does her plan open the door instead of closing it?
13. Bela lies on the beach and says Other Mommy is gone. It is the first time she deceives her parents on purpose. Is this the turning point of the book?
14. Grandma Ruth compares a heart to a house with hidden rooms, closets and corners, then changes while Bela blinks. Which image in that scene was the creepiest?
15. Bela says yes, and Other Mommy takes her place on the bed. Why does she say it, and did you see it coming?
16. The last page leaves Bela in a space big enough to hold everything anyone has ever said, ending with Hello, I’m Bela. How do you read that last line?
17. The book never confirms whether Mommy, Daddo and Grandma are dead. Does the ambiguity help or hurt?
18. Frank Doherty was found dead in a closet after Kyle whispered that Other Mommy had given Bela a present. What does that scene suggest about what Other Mommy will do for a friend?
19. Other Mommy may be a cycle, a creature, a reflection of the family’s secrets or a child’s loneliness given a face. Which theory do you believe?
20. The film reportedly changes the ending so that Bela and her parents survive. Which ending is better for this story?

What Is Other Mommy

The book never names her, and that is deliberate. Adults other than Bela see her too, including a party guest named Marsha, Bela’s mother, Daddo, Grandma Ruth and a woman named Evelyn, which is what makes the haunting real instead of imagined. The police, two priests, Lois Anthony’s occult friends and a security company all fail to stop her. The title matters too: the family tries to flee to a motel and a beach, but the haunting follows, which suggests the family is haunted more than the house.

What To Read Next

If you want a spoiler-free verdict first, start with our review. The ending explained page walks through the final chapters and the book versus movie differences, and the Other Mommy explained page covers her rules in detail. Our books-like-it list also covers the rest of the Josh Malerman books in order.